1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an end trimming mechanism of a printing apparatus for cutting an end portion of a tape-like printing medium, on which letters and other characters are printed, by a cutter blade and for trimming the end portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a printing apparatus for printing letters and other characters on a tape-like printing medium has been known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-16105 published on Mar. 12, 1972, in which letters and characters are selected by an embossing disc, and printed on a tape-like printing medium. A printed part of the tape is cut to a predetermined length by means of a cutter blade and is adhered to desired articles so as to identify the articles. The cutter blade is usually of a straight or arcuate shape to cut the tape into a strip with a straight or arcuate end shape. Also, an apparatus has been known, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1-23423 published on Jul. 18, 1989, in which a corner part of cards etc. is cut by a cutter blade having semicircular shape to cut the card into a strip with a semicircular end shape.
However, in such a conventional apparatus, in case of a printed tape strip which has rectilinearly cut ends, it can be easily set in a predetermined position on a surface to which the tape is to be adhered, but it involves a problem that the four corners of the tape strip tend to separate from the bonded surface, which eventually can lead to defoliation of the entire tape strip. Moreover, in a conventional device, if the tape is adhered in the corner of a hollow surface, it is not possible to adhere the corner of the tape along the roundness or radius which is usually applied to an interior corner of the hollow surface.
In addition, the tape is cut near the printed character in order to reduce the blank portion of the tape edge when the tape is cut into a strip with an arcuate or a semicircular end shape. This gives rise to the possibility that a part of the character is cut which is near the tape edge, for example a letter "H" as shown in FIG. 23, or a character with a vertical bar or a underline. Therefore, sufficient blank space was needed next to the final character to prevent portions of the characters at the ends of the tape from being cut off. Therefore, the cut tape became longer in relation to the number of characters and a large space was needed to receive the cut tape. It was not only uneconomical but also very inconvenient. Moreover, a printed tape strip which has rectilinearly cut ends can be easily aligned in a predetermined position on a surface to which the tape is to be adhered. On the other hand, in the case of a tape strip with arcuate or semi-circular cut ends, difficulties are often experienced in setting the tape strip exactly in alignment with a certain line or edge of a predetermined adhering position.